And The World Comes Crashing Down
by AmayaAmazing
Summary: Malfoy saves Hermione's life, Dumbledore's dead, and Draco wants the Golden Trios help: Voldemort needs to die
1. Everything Changes

My hollow footsteps echoed through the empty halls, away from where I was supposed to be waiting: the common room. At Professor McGonagall's urging I had herded the Gryffindor students into the common room, and slipped away. I needed to know what was happening. I needed to find Harry.

"Granger." It echoed through the hall ominously. Normally I wouldn't have been frightened, but I recognized the voice. Harry was right, that voice could be deadly. I glanced behind me, and my instinct was correct. Malfoy. "No, wait!" He called again, as I picked up the pace, my shoes slapping against the hard floor. But I wasn't moving fast enough, and a few seconds later I was tackled to the ground, my face slammed roughly onto the stone, I coughed as the blood filled my mouth. I fought to get him off of me, Harry needed my help, but he was too strong.

He grabbed the back of my robes and flipped me over onto my back in a rough motion that knocked the air out of me. He had a hold of my wrists before I could catch my breath and grab my wand. Merlin's beard, I was screwed: A Death Eater hovering above me as I laid in an empty hallway, unarmed, and gasping for air around the blood that spilled from my lips. I closed my eyes as his hand came up with his wand, and tried not to flinch as his voice rang out quietly, but clear in the hallway. It echoed back to me, and I was surprised that it wasn't the words I was expecting to hear. "Episkey!". A warm sensation flowed over my face as I felt the injuries being healed. A "Tergeo!" followed, and the sticky blood was cleared off my face. Why was he healing me? Why wasn't I dead? I opened my eyes and looked at him, burning with curiosity. His expression was torn.

"You could let me go Draco. You don't have to do this." I found myself saying, and his eyes caught mine, as if he was just remembering I was there.

"Bloody hell, I'm not going to kill you, you filthy-" He stopped and sighed. "I need your help." He said suddenly, urgently. "They're going to kill me."

"What?" I cut in, attempting to sit up, but he wasn't moving. Then I realized he knew what was going on. He knew what had happened in the school. "Malfoy, what's going on? What's going on with the school?" I demanded.

"He said if I didn't do it they would kill my family. I mean, either way they were going to have him dead." He slammed his hand down next to my head and I let out a squeak of fear.

"Who would kill your family?" I whispered. I already knew the answer.

"Voldemort." He hissed, his hand clenched into a fist, I could feel it shaking. I was quiet for a moment. Voldemort was going to kill Malfoy's bigoted family, unless Malfoy killed...

"Dumbledore.' I gasped, jumping quickly, managing to get out from under him. I scrambled to my feet and took off down the hallway once more, a real destination in mind this time.

"NO!" Malfoy shouted, catching up with me quickly and grabbing the back of my robes and pushing me against the rough wall.

"If you go up there, they're going to kill you." He growled, and despite my confusion, I shoved him away from me, and managed to get my wand out of my robes.

"I don't know why you're trying to help me Malfoy, but you need to let me go." I backed away, wand pointed at him.

"Granger!" He chocked out quickly, wand swinging upwards as two arms grabbed me around my neck from behind, cutting off my air.

"Drac-" The arm tightened. He put his face against my hair and breathed in deeply with a groan.

"This filthy little Mudblood is going to be a delicious snack." The voice growled. I looked to Malfoy for help, but he looked absolutely terrified. I could feel the man's mouth near my ear, and his tongue flicked out to lick my cheek. He groaned again. It was then, surprisingly, that I realized who it was. It was the werewolf who had bit Lupin. Grayback. Fenir Grayback. Shit. That knowledge didn't help me in the least as he grabbed me by my neck and tossed me roughly against the wall. I felt my wand snap under me before my vision went black.

"What the hell happened to her Malfoy?" I heard a voice yell. I brought my hand up to my face, and pressed it against my forehead. It was throbbing. Malfoy?

"Grayback." I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry and distorted. I blinked for awhile until things started making sense. I suddenly remembered what had happened.

"What's going on?" I said, sitting up quickly, dizziness threatening to overcome me and put me back to sleep: I pushed past it and steadied myself against the wall. Harry and Malfoy were standing close to each other, Malfoy pressed into a wall, Harry's wand at his throat.

"Dumbledore's dead." Harry said, his fist flew up to the side of Malfoy's head knocking him to the ground. Dumbledore...Dead? The words couldn't fit together in my mind. This couldn't be happening.

"How?" I whispered, lowering my eyes from the pain in Harry's. He snorted.

"Why don't you ask him?" Harry's voice was cold and vindicitive. He looked down at Malfoy in disgust before pulling back his foot and kicking him in the ribs, hard. Hard enough to break them.

"Stop!" I cried out suddenly, lurching off the bed. "Harry, he saved my life." I laid my hand on his arm. I kneeled down to Malfoy, and rolled him onto his back, blood was dripping out of one of his ears...The one Harry had hit him in, and his ribs were obviously broken. "Episkey." I whispered, healing the ribs. "What happened Malfoy?" I said slowly and quietly, leaning over him.

"Voldemort took over our home, at first I was left out of it, I was just a kid. Then he decided he needed to get rid of Dumbledore to get to you." He shot Harry a dirty look. "And I was a direct link to Hogwarts. Voldemort branded me with the dark mark. He was going to kill my family and I if I didn't find a way to get the Death Eaters in." His voiced dropped to barely a whisper, I had to lean in to hear him. "I was supposed to do it. I was supposed to do it, then Snape and his bloody Unbreakable Vow, everything just went down hill..." He trailed off.

"Snape?" I whipped around towards Harry.

"Yeah, you heard him. Snape did it." Harry slammed his fist down onto one of the glass trinkets. I looked around for the first time, to realize we were in Dumbledore's office.

"Harry." I whispered. "Were you there? Did you see it happen?" Harry nodded. I turned back to Malfoy. "Why were you trying to help me earlier?"

"Because...I just couldn't do it." He shrugged, apparently coming back to his senses.

"You said you needed my help?" I stood up and brushed off my skirt.

"Yes. I did. I do." Malfoy looked uncomfortable. Harry smashed another item, I shot him an exasperated look.

"Harry, please." I sighed. "Malfoy, what do you need help with?"

"I need to kill Voldemort."


	2. A Vow

Note: This is a chapter edit, I made an itsy-bitsy mistake following through with part of the storyline, so here's chapter two, actually making sense.

"We can't take him with us Hermione." Harry murmured softly. We were standing on the balcony looking out over the grounds. The sky was a light orange, casting a glow over everything. Malfoy hadn't left his common room since the day before the funeral, but I had been up to see him a few times; He hadn't said much. Ron sat behind us, moodily.

"What do we do then Harry? He could help us, he knows so much. He's one of them." I argued angrily. Harry couldn't see past his hatred. He couldn't see how useful inside knowledge of the Death Eaters could be.

"He could betray us!" Harry roared, I stumbled backwards.

"Harry!" I cried out, surprised at his sudden anger.

"What if we made him take an Unbreakable Vow?" Ron said quietly from behind us, I turned around to him in shock.

"What Ron?" I breathed.

"An unbreakable vow...To not betray us." He repeated.

"Ron, that's brilliant!" I exclaimed, turning back to Harry, who looked even angrier.

"Bloody hell Hermione, do whatever you want." He barked, storming off. Harry had been doing that a lot lately. I sighed, walked over to Ron, and sat down beside him.

"This is hard." I whispered, closing my eyes and setting my head on his shoulder. "But it'll be alright."

I made my way up to the Slytherin dungeons, the pieces of my broken wand hidden away in the pocket of my robe and Ron's wand in my hand. Almost everybody was gone, and I quickly found Malfoy lounging on one of the emerald sofas, book in hand. I sat down on one of the nearby chairs as he looked up.

"Granger." He said quietly, setting the book down next to him.

"Malfoy." I replied in our customary greeting. "We need to talk."

He chuckled, "Obviously, if you're here." I smiled weakly.

"You want to go with us, right?" He nodded. "I've worked hard to make that happen," I continued, "But some sacrifices have to be made. We need you to make an unbreakable vow." His eyes widened, and several emotions flashed across his face. I braced myself for the worst.

"Okay." He replied in a strained voice.

"Really? That's it?"

"Well, there's not much else for me to do. I can refuse, and then what will I do? I can't go back to them, and I'm as good as dead anywhere else. So, I'll do what I need to do." He began to pick up the book, before looking back at the expectant look on on my face. "You mean, now?" I nodded. He sighed and stood up, setting the book gingerly on the cushion.

"So...If you want to follow me...and...we'll find Harry." I said softly, making my way towards the exit, and I could hear his quiet footsteps behind me. I made my way to Dumbledore's office, and was relieved to find Harry looking out the window there.

"Harry." I said quietly, walking up behind him. "Malfoy's here...To make the vow." Harry nodded and turned around.

"Let's be done with it then." Harry's voice was off, passive-cold-wrong. They walked slowly towards each other, meeting in the middle of the room. I stood beside them, and they looked at me and I nodded. They both raised their arms and clasped their hands together, and something broke inside me. A small sob escaped my throat before I could stop it, and tears spilled down my cheeks. They both turned to me in shock, and their mirrored movements made the tears fall harder. This-companionship-could have saved lives-could have saved Dumbledore.

"Hermione." Harry whispered, his face filled with guilt, I just shook my head at him. It wasn't his fault, I was being ridiculous, which only made me cry harder. Malfoy snatched his hand away from Harry and looked at me with a smirk.

"Merlin's beard Granger, we were only holding hands." He said chuckling. I nodded at him and held by breath until the tears dried on my cheeks.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, trying to clear my head. "Let's do this." They joined hands once more, and although emotion threatened to overwhelm me once more, I held it down. I raised Ron's wand to their linked hands and began.

"Do you Draco Malfoy, swear to be faithful to our side," I emitted a small gasp as fire entwined around their hands, "To unite against Voldemort, and to never betray us, or any member of the Order of the Phoenix under any circumstances?"

"Yes." Malfoy said softly, and the flames disappeared. I lowered my wand and slumped to the floor against Dumbledore's desk.

"Thank you both." I said quietly, pulling my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. A few seconds later Ron burst in, hair a mess.

"Me mum's here." He exploded, "And she wants to take us all home. To The Burrow. Well, to Harry's house first, for Dumbledore..." He trailed off. "She doesn't know about that prat though," He gestured to Malfoy.

"Ron." I warned.

"But, Harry, I know you want to leave right now, but we have to stay for the wedding or mum'll murder us all."

"Wedding?" Harry demanded, standing up straight.

"Bill and Fleur's. It's at The Burrow, just next week." Ron's eyes were pleading. I glanced at Malfoy who was standing awkwardly-not quite awkward, he was too regal and handsome to be awkward-of to the side. Everything was tense for a minute, as we all looked around at each other.

"Fine." Harry muttered, exasperated. "We're leaving after. What are we going to do with him?" He gestured towards Malfoy.

"He'll have to come with us of course." I said immediately. Everyone turned to look at me and I blushed. "It's too dangerous to have him somewhere alone. He obviously can't go home, or stay here. He has nowhere to go, but with us." I looked at him, and I could tell I was right.

"Well, you can talk to my parents then." Ron said, and I could tell he was sulking. I sighed at him.

"Fine, I will. Harry, what do I do about my wand?" I asked, handing Ron's wand back to him angrily.

"We can convince mum to stop at Oliver's on they way home?" Ron said quietly. I nodded.

"Malfoy, you'll need to come with me." I could tell he was going to argue, but seeing the hard look on my face he took a hesitant step towards me, and I could hear his footsteps following me as I walked down the hallway to the Great Hall, where the blaring red hair of the Weasely family greeted me, along with an almost comical collective gasp.

"Hermione, what the hell is he doing here?" Mrs. Weasely demanded, her face pink and angry.


End file.
